The
following is an extract from a letter received from a member of the
Schley Rifles, 22d Regiment Georgia Volunteers, now at Fredericksburg,
Virginia, dated 18th December, 1862:

“Our
regiment was not in the fight with the infantry, but was supporting a
battery, and was under shelling for five days; but it was an awful
fight, for the Yankees charged our men nine times, and were repulsed
with great slaughter. Hey have at length gone back across the
Rappahannock to the north side. The battle field was six miles long, and
about a half a mile wide, and for as far as my eyes could see, you could
walk on dead Yankees, and not put your foot upon the ground. They are
burying them under a flag of truce, and there are so many of them that
they are digging pits, one and two hundred yards long, and just rolling
them in. We lost comparatively few.”

We
think the above gives a better idea of the real extent of the Yankee
loss than any account we’ve seen. The first account states the Yankees
as having five or six thousand killed and wounded. Later
acknowledgements from the Northern papers put it up as high as twenty
thousand, and from the above, seems nearer the mark, when, from the
personal knowledge of a young soldier, “the dead lay, as far as the
eye could reach, so thick that you could walk and not put your foot on
the ground.” It has been, in the slaughter and the effect, “The
Battle of the War.”

——-

Serious
Naval Disaster.An
Iron-Clad Destroyed in the Yazoo River by a Torpedo.

Cairo,
Dec. 18.—On Friday last the gunboats Cairo,
Marmora, and Signal,
ascending the Yazoo river, reached a point a mile below Hayne’s Bluff,
when a torpedo exploded under the Cairo,
shattering her bow. She sank in fifteen minutes in forty feet of water,
and cannot be raised. No lives were lost.

The
Cairo was one of the first
seven ironclad gunboats built for service on the Western rivers, and
participated in the captures of Forts Henry and Donelson.

——-

It
is remarked, after the experience of eighteen months of warfare, that
the smooth bore rifle is generally preferred by the Southern soldiers to
the Enfield or Springfield. The Confederates do not believe in long
shots, and seldom fire until within two hundred yards of their enemy. At
this distance the constant tendency of the rifled musket is to throw its
ball too high. It is asserted that, in the battles around this town,
traces of the musket balls fired by the Confederates indicate an average
height of from three to six feet above the ground, whereas the Federal
bullets ranged at a height of from six to nine feet. There is not a
question that a vast majority of the Federal bullets go high above their
opponents’ heads.

——-

It
is most creditable to the Confederacy to remark how, under all the
pressure of their circumstances, public liberty has never been
sacrificed, the habeas corpus
act never suspended. As an instance, I may mention that there are two
journals published daily in this town, which animadvert upon the
President and his Cabinet, and upon the Governor of Virginia, in
language which could scarcely be surpassed by the New York Herald.
It has been held better to put up with inconvenience of their
strictures, and with the apparent manifestations of dissensions thus
exhibited to the North, than to suppress or interfere with the freedom
of the press. But one effect of this tolerance is observed in the fact,
that nearly all the quotations copied into Northern papers, from the
Richmond press, are extracted from these two journals, and the
appearance of dissension, which has no real existence, is thus
delusively presented to Northern eyes.

European
News.Arrival
of the Steamship Scotia.
European Views of American Affairs.

New
York, Dec. 19.—The Royal mail steamship Scotia
from Liverpool, on the 6th instant, arrived at port this morning.

The
Paris Moniteur, in a
quasi-official form, alludes to the presence of a French squadron at New
Orleans, which is represented to have greatly elated the disaffected
population.

The
London Globe thinks that the
situation of America promises striking results soon.

The
Times thinks the Democratic
successes have rendered the Government desperate instead of daunting it;
and it looks upon the last advices as the worst yet—indicating that
the propagation of a servile war is about to commence.

Mr.
Gladstone, in a letter to Professor Newman, denies that he has expressed
any sympathy with the Southern cause or passed a eulogium on Jeff Davis.
He has thought it out of his province to praise or blame in such a
complicated question. He claims to be “a much better friend of the
Northern Americans than those who encourage them to persevere in their
hopeless and destructive enterprise.”

The
French Government has concluded contracts for the supply of the army in
Mexico for two years, from which a prolonged occupation of that country
is inferred.

The
cotton famine distress in France was increasing in severity.

——-

Late
from the United States.

The
New York World, of the 18th
and 19th instant, has some interesting Northern accounts, of which we
make some extracts.

A
letter from Fredericksburg, dated the 16th, says the army of the Potomac
has no idea of repeating the attempt of Saturday, as it is believed
impossible to drive the rebels from that position. A second effort was
warmly urged by several of the Generals, but “Fighting Joe Hooker”
contended that it would be mere folly, unless a night attack could be
successfully carried out.

The
terrible loss in the Second Army Corps will appall the public, says the
writer, and yet in the summary I send you to-night I put it a thousand
less than its commander does. Hancock lost over half his command, and he
feels deeply the fate of his noble men. Cauldwell, Meagher and Zook, who
led brigades, did their work well. Before going into action Meagher
addressed his brigade, exhorting them to stand firm, and promising them
that he would share with them the privilege of being the last to leave
the field. That they did stand firm we knew yesterday when two hundred
and fifty rations were all that were required for the brigade, which
went into action twelve hundred strong.

The
World says, editorially, that no further effort to reach Richmond
will be made by Burnside’s army at present, and that it will go into
winter quarters because it can do nothing else.

MONDAYDECEMBER 29,
1862THE
BOSTON EVENING TRANSCRIPT

Affairs in Charleston, S. C.—The
Bangor, Me., Whig publishes a letter written by a gentleman now residing in
Charleston, S. C., on the 10th, of which the following extracts are
made:

My
opinion is that the majority of residents of this city, at this time,
would not mourn to see the old flag waving in the breeze over the town.
The fire-eaters who are too old to be in the army have generally retired
into the interior, where we trust they will remain. When the grand crash
comes, it will find us not grieving, but glad. Sieges and storms have
lost their terrors to the people of this city. We have had so large a share of liberty
under our new Government that we can cheerfully submit for a time to the
oppression of the Federal Government. The bombardment of the city is not
so great an evil as some others.

With
flour at $30 a barrel, corn at $2.50 perbushel, potatoes at $4 per bushel, coffee at $2.75 per pound,
common calico at $2 per yard, shoes $16 for my wife, to say nothing of
$30 for a pair of pants, $1.30 for a pound of butter, and $1.55 to $1.65
a pound for yellow soap, bomb shells are not regarded as very terrible.
More people will suffer for want of fuel and food in Charleston this
winter than in all New England, unless the city falls into Federal
hands. Hundreds cannot buy salt. It was sold at auction the other day at
$46½ per bushel, at wholesale. I have just paid $22 per cord for poor
oak wood, and there are thousands of cords within a few miles of the
city, but no boats, no cars, no carts to haul it, no Negroes to cut
it—every body, every thing being used by the Confederate Government on
the public works. The efforts of the Government seem like desperation,
but to any one who has common sense there seems very little chance of
any successful defence.1

I
prophecy that when this town falls into the hands of the Federal
Government there will be such a different state of things here from what
is general anticipated as to surprise many outside of it and many in it.
The leaders of secession are no longer here, and they are thoroughly
killed off as far as future influence goes, however this war ends. Of no
man is there more thorough detestation today, in South Carolina, than
Robert Barnwell Rhett—not even Abraham Lincoln. The news of the death
of his whole family would give more joy than any other event I could
name. How sure it is that every revolution of such a character as this
kills its own sires.

The
Northern papers talk about the absence of Union feeling in the South.
There is no want of love for the old Government. It is daily growing
stronger rather than weaker. But the power of that Government must be
shown to be strong enough to occupy and possess the territory. Once give
us a chance, and the pressure of the peril off, and the welkin will ring
with joy at the downfall of the Confederate Government. But as long as
the Confederate Government is the one which exercises exclusive power
over us; as long as the army of Virginia stands defiantly in front of
the Federal army, so long will men hesitate to take the risk of openly
espousing the Union cause. >

It
is hard now to find any man who will avow that he was an original
secessionist. But their pride is engaged in the conflict. That will
yield to hard blows this winter. Then let Jeff Davis and Co. look out
for a peace party at the South. They have been straining their eyes to
see one at the North; they may see one in the South before they want it.
There is no single grievance of which the Southern States complained at
the hands of the Federal Government (except the one in conjunction with
slavery) which has not been aggravated by the Confederate Government,
and the common opinion here is, that whatever the result of the war, so
far as connection with the Federal Government goes, the axe has been
laid at the root of slavery.

——-

From
New Orleans.Resignation
of Army Officers.Movements of Commodore Farragut.

New
York, 29th.—A New Orleans letter of the 29th
inst. states that Judge Peabody, who arrived with General Banks, intends
to open a court in this city in a few days, as soon as he can obtain a
building and have rooms properly fit up. It is expected that the first
cases heard before this tribunal will be certain actions brought against
General Butler by citizens of New Orleans, to test the legality of the
seizure of their property. Their trials will excite considerable
interest and much anxiety will be manifested in regard to the decisions.

Col.
Wheldon of the 31st Mass. and Col. Brown of the 8th Vt. regiments have
resigned.

Com.
Farragut with his fleet have gone up the river to reduce the Port Hudson
rebel batteries.

The
Herald’s Washington dispatch
says it is asserted that Gen. Banks has carried with him to New Orleans
the Emancipation Proclamation, to be issued on the 1st of January, so as
to promulgate it at New Orleans simultaneously with its publication in
other parts of the country. This, however, is very doubtful.

Major
Gen. Butler is by this time on his way to Washington, he having been
ordered to report here. Report already assigns him an important command
in the field.

——-

At
a late review in Berlin, a dragoon, whose girths had given way, kept in
the ranks and rode through the manœuvres without a saddle. The fact
having come to the King’s knowledge, he said to his aid-de-camp:
“Say nothing about it, gentlemen; if the Chambers were to hear of it,
they might strike out saddles from the war estimates.”

——-

Tax
Commissioner Boutwell has decided, in a case in New York, that when a
dealer or manufacturer removes his business from one building to
another, he must take out a new license. This decision is commented upon
as rather queer.

TUESDAYDECEMBER 30, 1862THE
BOSTON
DAILY ADVERTISER

From
Gen. Burnside’s Army.

Headquarters, Army Potomac, Dec. 28.—The latest reliable intelligence relating to the rebel
army in our front, states that they have massed their forces on both
sides of the railroad from Fredericksburg to below Gurney’s Station.
The track for two miles south of Fredericksburg has been torn up, and
the rails are being used for turnouts at the present terminus of the
road. On Tuesday a brigade of rebel cavalry were outfitted with rations
and forage for several days, and revolvers were distributed to the men
near Gurney’s Station. It was believed there that their destination
was King George’s County via Port Royal.

On
Saturday a new encampment made its appearance on the second range of
hills in the rear of Fredericksburg in full view of our position. A
considerable number of tents have recently been sent up from Richmond to
Lee’s army.

The
Richmond Examiner of the 25th
indicated that Lee with a portion of his army was moving toward
Culpepper to make a demonstration in front of Washington, but it is
known that Lee was still near Fredericksburg on Friday noon.

The
enemy are all engaged every night in raising and extending their
breastworks along the streets fronting the river, as if to prevent any
future crossing by pontoon bridges. A friendly intercourse has existed
between the respective river pickets until recently. To prevent
communication of improper information, a positive order has been issued
to suspend the fraternizing. On Friday a rebel commissioned officer and
two privates were seized on this side and sent back to their side. The
exchange of newspapers has also been interdicted by Gen. Burnside.

Flags
of truce cross the Rappahannock every day, principally to transfer to
the other side citizens who came within our lines to escape the
bombardment. Our soldiers are taking advantage of the pleasant weather
in providing against the cold weather by building huts.

A
general order has been published to facilitate the return of
convalescents and stragglers in camp at Alexandria to their regiments.
Major W. H. Wood of the 17th Infantry has been detailed to accomplish
this duty.

Notwithstanding
the presence of our gunboats in the Rappahannock, the enemy has of late
procured large supplies of cattle, horses and forage from the Peninsula
counties. Last week Gen. Pleasanton captured 150 head of cattle, which
had been thus collected and were on route for Leeds.

An
officer of General Longstreet’s staff, who had crossed into King
George county for the purpose of getting married, was taken prisoner by
General Pleasanton. His two groomsmen escaped.

——-

Lecture on the Mormons.—Miss
Helen M. Dresser delivered her lecture on the Mormons, in Tremont
Temple, last evening, before an audience, which although not large,
fully appreciated the salient points in her exposition of the follies of
this peculiar religious sect. The first part of the lecture was devoted
to the history of the rise and progress of Mormonism, of the successful
impostures of their prophet, Joseph Smith, and of the persecution to
which Mormons have been subjected in Missouri, Illinois and other
western States. The second part was an account of her experience among
this peculiar people, from the time when a child of eleven years, in
1854, she was taken among them by a company of her relatives and
friends, emigrants from Scotland, until the time of her escape. Miss
Dresser is a young lady of prepossessing appearance, quite
unembarrassed, and with a clear pleasant voice whose sympathetic tones
were audible even in the distant parts of the hall. Her lecture was not
uninteresting although it would have perhaps been more striking, if she
had dealt less with generalities and confined herself more closely to
her own experiences.

Lands in the back Bay.—We
invite the attention of our readers to the auction sale, on Saturday
next, at the Merchants’ Exchange, of forty-four lots of land belonging
to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on the Back Bay. Twenty-two of
these lots front on Beacon street, beyond Clarendon, and twenty-two upon
Marlborough street. The lots on Beacon street (excepting two at the
corners) are put up at the very reasonable minimum price of $1.50 per
square foot; and those on Marlborough street (with like exceptions) at
$1.25. The lots are all of them 112 feet deep. We are confident that we
are correct in saying that there has been no previous opportunity so
favorable as this for securing a site for a dwelling-house in the very
best situation at so reasonable a rate. The lots on the north side of
the Milldam sold, we believe, at the same price by the Mill Corporation,
have considerably greater depth, and have accordingly cost a larger sum.
The terms of sale proposed by the State Commissioners, which, as well as
the minimum prices, have received the approval of the governor,
according to law, being the same as those of the late sale, are of a
character to prove satisfactory and convenient to purchasers. One
quarter only of the purchase money need be paid in cash, the residue
being payable in one, two, and three years, with interest at the rate of
five per cent per annum. Messrs. N. A. Thompson & Co. are the
auctioneers. Catalogues and plans may be obtained at their office where
they are now ready for delivery.

——-

A Magnificent Result.—Those
who are always croaking about the lukewarmness of the loyal States may
comfort themselves with the following facts:

At
the meeting of the United States Sanitary Commission held in New York
city last week, it appeared that besides immense supplies of hospital
stores distributed, they had received $520,000, in money, of which
$180,000 are still in their treasurer’s hands, and subject to order.

The
Western Sanitary Commission (of St. Louis), which is an independent
organization, has received and distributed hospital stores to the value
of $300,000, and $100,000 in money. It had on the 1st of December
$15,000 on hand, and its expenditures are at the rate of $10,000 a
month.

The
whole of this is by purely voluntary gift from individuals. Nor is this
the whole. Every State, and almost every city and town, has its separate
channels of munificence, for soldiers in the field or their families at
home; and what is done by the above-named commissions is probably less
than half of the voluntary contributions in the past eighteen months.

We
call this a magnificent result.

WEDNESDAYDECEMBER 31,
1862THE
NEW HAMPSHIRE PATRIOT & STATE GAZETTE

The Feeling in the Army.—The
Chaplain of one of the New Jersey regiments, writing in regard to the
Battle of Fredericksburg, says:

The
five days’ battle may thus be summed up. We marched over the river and
we marched back again, minus 10,000 (killed and wounded) who “beat
their funeral march to the grave.” We went over hopefully, we came
back despondingly. We not only mourn the loss of the thousands of
“unreturning brave,” but the moral effect of a victory. This would
be equivalent to 50,000 men. There is nothing, so far as I can see,
humanly speaking, that this army so much needs as confidence, hope. Men
may disguise the fact, but they cannot deny it, that the army is sadly
disheartened.

The
prevalent feeling is that we cannot conquer a peace; that we are no
nearer subduing our “enemies under our feet” than when we first
began; that the rebels fought better on Saturday than on the first Bull
Run battlefield. Some may question the policy of writing this, if true,
but I believe otherwise. If from the beginning “the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth,” had been written, we should be in a
different condition from what we are to-day. It is one thing to say how
the army ought to feel and another to say how it does feel. While I
write from the army, I mean to state what
is. If the armies could settle it, it would be settled without any
more bullets or blood.

——-

The Alabama Still at Work.—On
the 7th inst., the steamship Ariel
from New York for Aspinwall, with passengers and freight for California,
was captured by the rebel privateer Alabama,
off the east end of Cuba. She was taken to Jamaica, where she was
detained two and a half days, and robbed of $12,000 in specie and a lot
of boots and shoes, and then released upon a bond for $260,000 as
ransom. There were on board some U.S. officers and 140 marines on their
way to California, who were paroled after all their arms and equipment
were taken from them.

——-

Severe Threats.—Jeff
Davis has issued a Proclamation against Gen. Butler, denouncing him as
“a felon, deserving of capital punishment,” for certain alleged
offenses, and ordering that he shall be hung by any Confederate officer
who may capture him; and ordering that no captured federal officer shall
be released on parole, before exchange, until Gen. Butler “shall have
met with punishment for his crimes.” All officers serving under the
said general shall, if captured, be considered felons deserving of
death, and be reserved for execution. All Negro slaves captured in arms,
and officers found serving with them, shall be turned over to the
authorities of the States to which the Negroes belong, to be dealt with
according to the laws of said States.

——-

The
schooner Jeff Davis, with 288
bales of cotton, was lately captured in running out of a southern port.
The rebel schooner Retribution
ran the blockade off Wilmington, N. C., on the 27th of last month, and
reached St. Thomas on the 7th of this with a cargo of 370 barrels of
spirits of turpentine, 100 bales of cotton and 100 barrels of rosin. She
had a crew of fifteen men, and carried three guns in her hold.

Some of the Consequences.—The
terrible battles, marches, deprivations and sufferings of our soldiers,
since the withdrawal of Gen. McClellan from the peninsula, are the
direct consequences of the malignant political hostility to him
manifested by those who control the management of the war. When he was
ordered to withdraw, he said he could take Richmond if he could have
35,000 more men. This number was refused him, because
it had been determined that he should not take Richmond. He was
therefore ordered to withdraw, and thus lost the opportunity of taking
Richmond. We were compelled to fight Pope’s disastrous battles, in
which we lost about 40,000 men and millions of property; we were
compelled to fight the terrible battles of South Mountain and Antietam,
in which we lost about 12,000 men; we were compelled to give up
Harper’s Ferry, with 11,000 men and millions of property; we suffered
the losses of men and property in the advance down to Warrenton; and
more disastrous than all, we have suffered the terrible slaughter and
repulse at Fredericksburg—all this because it had been resolved, for
political reasons and to gratify partisan malice, to crush
McClellan. Here is the plain truth; how do the people like it? Are they
willing to support men who thus conduct?

——-

The
amount demanded for the support of the army for the next year is only
$750,000,000—seven hundred and
fifty millions of dollars! It is very easy, says the N. Y. Herald, for members of Congress to vote money out of the pockets of
the people. It is not so easy for the people to pay it. Before they do
they want to know in what manner the money already raised for the army
has been expended, and whether it is not incumbent on the President to
appoint an entirely different set of men to manage future expenditures.
These people are willing to expend their treasure and their blood to any
amount for the restoration of the Union, but not a cent or a drop of
blood to carry out the visionary, impracticable ideas of fanatics; nor
will they patiently look on while their sons and brothers and neighbors
are slaughtered by wholesale through the criminal carelessness or
ignorance of pretenders, who have never seen a battle, and who
undertake, at Washington, to lead in the field armies of 150,000 men, at
sixty or a hundred miles distance, by a click of the telegraph.

——-

Investigations
in regard to frauds upon the Government in New York City show that a
vast amount of knavery in the expenses of recruiting and organizing
troops. It is stated that nearly one half the amount paid has been paid
on fraudulent accounts. Hundreds of persons are implicated, and one
colonel is proved guilty of enough to send him to the State prison for
life. But “that’s the way the money goes” all over the country.
Similar investigations in Washington and in all the States would show
that many millions of dollars have thus been “appropriated” by those
engaged in the raising and organizing of troops.

THURSDAYJANUARY 1,
1863THE
VERMONT PHŒNIX

Destruction
of the Gunboat Cairo.

A
letter from Cairo gives the following particulars of the blowing up of
the gunboat Cairo in the Yazoo River by a torpedo of the enemy, which has been
heretofore mentioned in a telegraphic dispatch.

On
the evening of Thursday, the 11th instant, orders were issued for the
four boats Pittsburgh, Cairo,
Marmora and Signal to make
ready to ascend the Yazoo on the following morning. The Pittsburgh
and Cairo are of the iron-clad flotilla. The Marmora and Signal are
light stern-wheel boats, designed for use in the shallow tributaries of
the Mississippi.

A
short distance below Haynes’ Bluff, on the Yazoo, it was ascertained
that the rebels had placed a row of torpedoes across the river, with the
desire of sinking any boats that should attempt to descend within range
of the batteries. The experience of the Navy with the torpedoes at Fort
Wayne and Columbus, in the early part of the year, was not such as to
induce much dread of these engines of war. Boats were lowered and the
work of raising the torpedoes commenced at once. Five of them had been
secured and taken on board the boats, and it was thought that but little
more labor was necessary to open the channel of the river.

The
Cairo was slowly pushing ahead
up the stream, and several men on the bow were engaged in dragging for
one of the torpedoes. The apparatus used for dragging had caught upon
the anchorage ropes of a torpedo, and the men had almost brought it to
the surface on the port side, when an explosion took place under the bow
and about four feet below the surface of the water. The force of the
explosion threw up a huge column of water that thoroughly drenched the
men in the immediate vicinity. A hole of considerable extent was made in
the bow, the planks being loosed and torn apart, so as to admit the
water at a rapid rate. The entire boat was shaken from stem to stern,
and her bow was lifted so high in the air that the water swept over the
portion of stern aft casemate.

The
Cairo commenced filling
immediately after the explosion, and sunk in less than twelve minutes.
At the time of the explosion the boats of the Cairo were mostly full of
men engaged in dragging for torpedoes. All those on board rushed at once
to the upper deck, and before the water had filled the interior every
one had escaped.

The
Cairo sunk in twenty-nine feet
of water and disappeared completely from view. Her smoke stacks were
fished up her pennant was secured as it floated upon the water. Nothing
else was saved from the boat. The officers lost all their personal
effects. No one saved anything except what he was wearing at the time.

——-

Paper Stock from Liberia.—We
have just concluded a commercial treaty with the Liberian Republic; and
the Liberians claim that they are an enterprising people—indeed, they
have proven so much. They have now an opportunity to benefit us and
themselves at the same time. We find in a late number of the Monrovia Herald
a catalogue of articles exhibited in the World’s Fair which just
closed at London, by Liberian agents. In this list the first six numbers
are fibers, described as follows:

“No.
1. Bundle of fiber from the trunk of the bamboo tree. This fiber is
taken from the external coating of the tree, and makes the strongest
cordage of any material known to the aborigines; they use it for nooses
in their snares for taking wild animals of the greatest strength. >

“No.
2. Bundle of fiber from the leaf of the bamboo tree. This fiber is
extensively used by the natives for finer articles manufactured from fibers.

“No.
3. Bundle of fiber from the palm tree—the same that produces the nut
yielding the palm oil. This fiber is taken is taken from the leaf.

“No.
4. Bundle of pineapple fiber. This fiber is taken from the leaf, which
yields a considerable percentage. Wild pineapples cover extensive fields in
Liberia.

“No.
5. Bundle of fiber from the plantain tree.

“No.
6. Bundles of African hemp. Grows wild near the sea-shore, and may be
collected in any quantity.”

Here
are six kinds of vegetable fibers, all useful and easily prepared for the
paper maker. Paper is now very dear; labor is abundant and cheap in Liberia,
and once assured of a remunerative market for a new industry, the Liberians
can draw on the native population back of them for considerable additions to
their laboring force. Let them use their opportunity—they may make it a
truly golden one. There are machines invented and in successful operation by
which every one of the fibers can be quickly prepared for the market; and
they have only to offer paper-stock to get the highest price for it. Without
paper, civilization would almost stop; it would be peculiarly appropriate,
could Africa, on the borders of which civilization now stands, supply us
with that which we need to make her progress rapid and sure.—N.
Y. Evening Post.

——-

Distress of the English
Operatives.—The bitter famine in Lancashire is so severe that
twenty-one and seven tenth per cent of the whole population of that
district—more than one in every five persons—are dependent for existence
upon parochial relief of public charity. It takes one hundred dollars a week
to keep the Lancashire operatives from starvation.

When
the famine actually began to pinch, in the early part of last summer, the
operatives commenced withdrawing their funds from the savings banks, and in
this manner put off the evil days; but as the season advanced, and mill
after mill stopped, this temporary relief failed, and with the expenditure
of the last of their savings came the real distress of the people. Then they
began to sell their furniture, and when that resource failed, they pawned
their clothes. The last struggle having been made, they came upon the
parish, or were the recipients of the public charity provided by the
national subscription. The total amount of this subscription, up to the 1st
of December, was five hundred and
forty thousand pounds. The American contributions, amounting to a
hundred and sixty thousand dollars, had not been received when the record
was made up, and is not included in the sum total. Added to the British
contributions, the amount swells the aggregate of the Relief Fund to three millions, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

FRIDAYJANUARY 2,
1863THE
SPRINGFIELD REPUBLICAN (MA)

The
Drummer Boy of the Seventh Michigan Infantry.—The drummer
boy who crossed the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg on Thursday of last
week with the Michigan seventh, is Robert Henry Hendershot, thirteen
years of age. His only living parent, his mother, resides at Jackson,
Michigan. He first enlisted as a drummer boy in the ninth Michigan
infantry, and went with the regiment to Tennessee. The first battle that
he was present at was that of Lebanon in that state, where he acted as
drummer for the fourth Pennsylvania cavalry. He was also at the battle
of Shiloh, and received a severe flesh wound under his right eye, and
now carries the honorable scar with him. After this battle he was
stationed with the regiment at Murfreesboro, and captured there by the
rebels. A few weeks since he went on with the chaplain of the eighth
Michigan, and joined that regiment. On the day of the taking of
Fredericksburg, he left his regiment and pressed to the river bank, and
was the third one in the boat, following the captain and lieutenant. The
captain in command ordered him out against his protestations, telling
him he would surely be killed. He then waited on the shore, and shoved
off the first boat when it was fully loaded, and instead of remaining on
shore, clung to the stern of the boat and was borne across half under
water. The shot and shell flew thickly. Two men were killed within
arm’s reach of him, and his own coat was torn open by a bullet. On
reaching the opposite shore, a shot struck his drum, knocking it into
splinters, and he caught up a loaded gun, dropped by a wounded or dead
soldier, and followed on. He was one of the first to tear down the
secession flag, and has brought off a piece as a trophy. He then broke
open a house and found in the yard a rebel sharpshooter, wounded in his
right hand. He immediately brought his gun to bear upon him, and marched
him on to the boats in triumph as a prisoner. He then recrossed the
river, and Gen. Burnside met him and said, “I glory in your spunk,
boy; if you go on that way, you will soon get my place.” Among the
trophies he found in the house he broke open was a human bone, partially
carved in the shape of a ring, which he brought off and now has with
him.

——-

A
Prophetic Rebel.—The Richmond Dispatch of the 24th ult., has an article on national retribution,
which threatens all sorts of divine judgments upon the North for its
invasion of the South. Its talk about slavery and its queer mixing up of
things that differ is not exactly in the style of the ancient
maledictory prophets. It says:

“The
North need not expect to escape the universal law of retribution which
has visited every nation that disregarded the rights and destroyed the
peace of others. For all the national sins of the United States—and
young as that country was in years, it was old in iniquity—it is
equally responsible, to say the least of it, with the South. In all the
filibustering of the old United States her agency has been as great as
that of the South. Even in regard to slavery, New England divides with
old England the honor of establishing slavery in the South, and if the
South has owned the labor, the North has reaped the principal share of
the profits. >

If
the South is receiving its punishment, we cannot expect that the North
will escape. At present it is having a very agreeable time, carrying on
a war and feeling none of its perils at home. It cannot expect, even
upon its own favorite idea that slavery is a sin which provokes the
vengeance of Heaven to escape retribution. It will one day have to drink
the same bitter cup which is now pressed upon the lips of the South,
aggravated by the punishment of its crimes in the present war. It is
inconceivable that the Almighty should fail to visit such gigantic
wickedness as the present invasion, and inhuman and atrocious manner in
which it is carried on, with His most signal displeasure. War, such war
as even the persecuted South has never yet suffered; civil war, not
sectional, bloody and brutal war of races at its own doors; war of those
who have not against those who have, will yet rage at its own
hearthstones, and convert its fairest fields into howling deserts. There
are men yet living who will see the flames of the first revolution
rekindled in all their homes in the northern states. If such a community
as Fredericksburg, pure and innocent beyond comparison, are reduced to
such suffering, what will be the fate of the polluted northern
cities—the Sodoms and Gomorrahs of a depraved and infidel race?

——-

Emancipation
Proclaimed.

The
complementary and final proclamation of freedom to the slaves of rebels
came on New Year’s day according to promise. It is explicit and to the
purpose. Tennessee as well as the loyal border states are exempted from
the action of the proclamation, as also are the western counties now
held by our forces, and the two congressional districts of Louisiana
that have elected members of Congress. Emancipation is proclaimed as a
fit and necessary war measure for suppressing the rebellion, as it
should be, for the president deals with the matter solely as
commander-in-chief and not as a philanthropist, although his personal
opinions and feelings on the abstract question of slavery of course
coincide with his duty as the executive head of the nation.

There
will of course be honest differences of opinion among the people as to
whether this measure will tend to promote the legitimate objects of the
war or not, but since it has become the established and declared policy
of the president, whose duty it was to determine it, and since it is
approved by both the legislative and executive branches of the
government, and cannot not be recalled, there is no course for genuine
loyalty and patriotism but earnest and unwavering support of the
government in the enforcement of the measure. It is to succeed, and
sooner or later slavery is to become a thing of the past. Is any man
worthy to be himself free who does not rejoice in the prospect? Or can
any man doubt that the destruction of slavery will ensure the safety and
glory of the country for all coming time; or consider any price too
great to be paid for so great a boon?

SATURDAYJANUARY 3, 1863THE
DAILY PALLADIUM (CT)

ATTACK
ON VICKSBURG.Heavy Loss by the Union Troops.
REBEL ACCOUNTS.

Richmond
papers have dispatches from Vicksburg to the effect that on
Saturday last the Union forces attempted to capture the works at
Vicksburg, but failed. On Sunday they again tried it, but failed. On
Monday there was a third attempt, and another failure; and at the date
of the dispatch (Tuesday) fighting still continued, with no important
results. Our troops are said to have been mowed down like grass yet the
rebel loss was just about nothing at all. The Union troops have
destroyed a large portion of the railroad running west from Vicksburg,
toward Shreveport, La., and burned the village of Delhi. Although
boasting of the unparalleled valor of their soldiers, we do not see any
satisfactory evidences of a victory on the part of the rebels.

——-

Gen. Sherman Gone up the Yazoo River.
HE WILL ADVANCE TO VICKSBURG BY LAND.

A
steamer from below reports at Cairo that the gunboats accompanying Gen.
Sherman’s expedition had gone up the Yazoo River. At Drunning Old’s
Bluff, 20 miles above the mouth, a rebel battery was discovered, and a
severe cannonade followed, during which the gunboat Benton
was struck sixteen times, the shots penetrating. Gen. Sherman’s force
will debark up the Yazoo and march to near Vicksburg. A train with
supplies was to leave Memphis on Thursday for Holly Springs.

——-

What Slaves
the Proclamation Reaches at Once.

One
of the leading statists of the country (Mansfield of Ohio) says: “The
statistics of the United States show that the largest body of plantation
slaves are massed on the Mississippi and its tributaries and the Gulf
coast. The lands most productive for cotton and sugar are the alluvial
lands of the rivers and the coast, especially in Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama and Georgia. Take a map and look at the navigable waters of the
cotton states, beginning at Memphis. There are the Mississippi, Red
river, Yazoo, Big Black, Tombigbee, Alabama, Chattahoochee, Arkansas,
and all the numerous bays, bayous and estuaries which intersect the
south in every direction, and which are navigable the largest part of
the year. This is the heart of the slave country; and as the best lands
are on the water-courses, the largest and best cotton and sugar
plantations are on or near navigable waters. More than half of all the
slaves in Mississippi, for instance, are in nineteen counties, lying on
the Mississippi, the Yazoo and the Big Black—all navigable for
steamboats. In Louisiana, more than half of the slaves are on the Mississippi and its bayous.
The same is to a large extent the case in Florida and Georgia. Not only
this, but the greatest mass of slaves are within three miles of those
rivers. The reason is obvious. The emigrants from the Carolinas and
Virginia sought the best lands and the most accessible to market. The
military consequences of this state of things is that a million of
slaves in the South lie literally under the guns of the army and navy of
the Union this day. Those masters remain on their plantations with their
slaves only by our permission.

——-

Gen.
McNeil, of Missouri, whom the English editors are abusing as a
“murderer,” “barbarian,” &c., for hanging guerrillas, is not
a Yankee, but a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

An Important Canal Project.

The
Washington Chronicle makes
mention of a canal project to unite the waters of the Mississippi with
those of Lake Winnipeg. By constructing a canal about three-fourths of a
mile in length from Big Stone Lake to Lake Traver, steamboats from St.
Paul could navigate both the Minnesota river and the Red river of the
North to Lake Winnipeg, a distance of seven hundred miles. The country
traversed by three rivers is surpassingly fertile, and capable of
sustaining a dense population. Lake Winnipeg is larger than Lake
Ontario, and receives the Sas-katch-a-wan river from the west. The Sa-katch-a-wan
river is navigable to Edmonton House, near the Rocky Mountains, seven
hundred miles west of Lake Winnipeg, and only one hundred and fifty
miles east of the celebrated gold diggings on Frazer river, in British
Columbia.

The
digging of that one mile of canal would, therefore, enable a steamboat
at New Orleans to pass into Lake Winnipeg, and from thence to Edmonton
House, some five thousand miles. A bill has been introduced into the
Senate by Mr. Rice, which makes provision for the building of the canal.
The Chronicle says:

“Probably
there cannot be found in the world a spot across which the digging of so
short a canal would effect a result so prodigious. And what is almost
equally remarkable, the ground between the two lakes is so low and so
level that, it is said, the water flows in times of freshets, from one
to the other.”

To
conduct this one mile of canal Mr. Rice proposes a grant of one million
acres of land.

——-

The
New York Tribune assumes to
have trustworthy advices “that the recent interchange of sentiments
between our Democratic leaders and the Rebel chiefs has resulted in no
understanding, but rather in a more hopeless estrangement. The former
sounded the latter with regard to the terms of accommodation they were
prepared to accept, and were plumply answered that they would consent to
no terms of reunion—that no number, no completeness, of Democratic
triumphs at the North, would shake their resolution—that they regarded
all opponents of their independence, no matter of what party, as
enemies, and as such should treat them to the end.”

——-

The
Negroes of New York had a grand jubilee on New Year’s eve in Shiloh
church, spending the night in prayer and praise, and welcoming the
opening of the year of emancipation with demonstrations of great joy. At
Washington and elsewhere, the people of color made the night vocal with
thanksgivings for the great deliverance that is being wrought out for
their brethren in fire and blood.

——-

The
number of slaves declared free by Mr. Lincoln’s proclamation is about
8,125,000. In the portions of the slave States excepted there are only
about 830,000 slaves.